David Silverstein
{{short description|American screenwriter}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2021}}
{{Infobox person
| name = David Silverstein
| birth_name =
| birth_date = January 13, 1896
| birth_place = Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1944|07|06|1896|01|13}}
| death_place = Staten Island, New York
| occupation = Screenwriter, actor
}}
David Silverstein (January 13, 1896 – July 6, 1944) was an American screenwriter and journalist who worked at MGM, Universal, and Columbia in the 1930s and 1940s.{{Cite web |date=June 30, 1944 |title=The Drama Desk |url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/90036952/?terms=%22david+silverstein%22+scenarist |access-date=December 1, 2019 |website=The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |language=en}}
Biography
Silverstein was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Nathan Silverstein and Minnie Grobstein. His parents were Jewish Russian immigrants.
Silverstein served in the military during World War I,{{Cite web |date=July 7, 1944 |title=Film Pioneer Dies |url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/147976426/?terms=%22david+f.+silverstein%22+pittsburgh |access-date=December 1, 2019 |website=The Pittsburgh Press |language=en}} and he worked as a journalist before beginning his career in Hollywood.{{Cite web |date=July 7, 1944 |title=Maj. David F. Silverstein, Ex-Newspaperman, Dies |url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/128860886/?terms=%22david+f.+silverstein%22+pittsburgh |access-date=December 1, 2019 |website=The Republic |language=en}} His first credit as a scenario writer came in 1932 with the release of Hatta Marri. He would go on to write 24 films over the course of his career.
Silverstein joined the Army Signal Corps during World War II in 1941; he joined other Columbia scenarists in writing training films at the Film Lab in Fort Monmouth, New Jersey.{{Cite web |date=August 20, 1941 |title=Training Film Lab |url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/496431113/?terms=%22david+silverstein%22+scenario |access-date=December 1, 2019 |website=The Daily Record |language=en}} He died of injuries received in action in 1944, and was awarded a Purple Heart posthumously.{{Cite web |date=August 11, 1944 |title=Popular Edition of 'Under Cover' |url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/49959501/?terms=%22david+silverstein%22+scenarist |access-date=December 1, 2019 |website=The Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle |language=en}} He was survived by his wife, Alice, and their son.{{Cite web |date=July 7, 1944 |title=Film Playwright Dies |url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/90037244/?terms=%22david+f.+silverstein%22+pittsburgh |access-date=December 1, 2019 |website=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Screen Writers' Guild |url=http://archive.org/details/screenwrite31scre |title=The Screen Writer (Jun 1947 – Mar 1948) |last2=Rouben Mamoulian Collection (Library of Congress) DLC |date=1947 |publisher=Screen Writers Guild |others=MBRS Library of Congress}}
Selected filmography
- Career Girl (1944)
- Sabotage Squad (1942){{Citation |title=Nicholls, David Alan, (born 30 Nov. 1966), novelist, screenwriter |date=December 1, 2012 |work=Who's Who |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u256595}}
- I Killed That Man (1941)
- The Kid from Kansas (1941)
- Mystery Ship (1941)
- Melody and Moonlight (1940)
- Should a Girl Marry? (1939)
- Almost a Gentleman (1939)
- Saturday's Heroes (1937)
- You Can't Beat Love (1937)
- 15 Maiden Lane (1936)
- Ticket to Paradise (1936)
- Dancing Feet (1936)
- Streamline Express (1935)
- Woman Wanted (1935)
- The Scarlet Letter (1934)
- King Kelly of the U.S.A. (1934)
- Manhattan Love Song (1934)
- Unknown Blonde (1934)
- The Devil's Mate (1933)
References
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Category:Jewish American screenwriters
Category:Screenwriters from Pennsylvania
Category:20th-century American screenwriters
Category:United States Army personnel killed in World War II